Archive for January, 2009

I am in the warmth of Subic Bay, Philippines now! I like it a lot. It is so different to the winter and icy conditions of Switzerland and the UK. I do love winters, I was brought up in proper winters! But right now I have a choice to be other places to train, to give me more opertunity to be the best athlete I can be.
Once out of our air conditioned apartment here in Subic Bay, its like being in an oven, sometimes a hot oven, sometimes a warm oven, but always, an oven which is switched on!
Stephen and I are staying in a nice small apartment, we are happy in our little place. We have a little kitchen, a bed, little bathroom and a tv.
Mat came round to visit the other day! It was good to see him and catch up. He brought us a lovely bag of fruit as a wedding gift/welcome back present. That was a lovely gift, thankyou Mat.
Sometimes we have horrible friends come in, ..cockroaches… yuk!!! we dont like them.
Close by we have the swimming pool, and plenty of great roads right on our doorstep to bike and run on.
TeamTBB Mechanic Azmel has put my new Oval bars on. ThankYou Azmel for your dedicated work on my bike! ThankYou Oval for my great new bars.
Ok, time to go train!

Time to leave Scotland for the Philippines.
I feel happy after our week long training camp in Scotland! Sometimes training here at my Mum and Dads home can have its frustrations. But this week I can not complain. The temperatures have been a balmy high of 5 degrees. After the arctic conditions in Switzerland I really feel I have been operating very well in these warm temperatures. I suppose I was brought up in a high of 5 degrees so my body likes it!?!
The swimming pool has been great. Each morning they greet Stephen and I with open arms and ask “what can we get ready for you today”! A lane is all we need and to be able to use paddles has been great! Here in the UK, paddles are the devil it seems. But at Aboyne now, they have seen the light and its been great!
Biking and running here is also great. We live in the Highlands! You only see the odd car and no other triathletes or athletes.
Unfortunatly I did get a real scare the other day, I was hit by a car while riding my bike, (well, I thought I was, but actually I think it was someone hitting me with their hand on my back side whilst time trialling down the road. He must have thought it would have been funny. It scared the living hell out of me but I managed to keep myself upright and it has not damaged me at all. phewwww.
Now some travel time to the really nice warm TeamTBB base camp!

It is very very cold here right now, cycling outdoors is difficult, but on the odd occasion it is possible to ride outdoors. The Swiss know how to take care of their roads, as soon as it snows they plough them till all the snow is gone, then salt, salt and more salt.

I got Stephen to take this photo when we had got home today!

My favorite piece of clothing this month, is definetly my balaclava. I would NOT go out the door without that essential item!